


Midnight

by WhatTheWentz



Category: Doctor Who (2005)
Genre: Angst, Homophobia, M/M, Set during Midnight, attempted suicide
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-08-04
Updated: 2015-08-04
Packaged: 2018-04-12 06:00:07
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,388
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4468025
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/WhatTheWentz/pseuds/WhatTheWentz





	Midnight

“So, what are you into, Jethro Cane?” the tall brunette asked as he sat himself beside the teen who had his feet against the seat in front of him.

Jethro arched an eyebrow, “I’m sorry?”

“Well, you’re a young man, you must have interests, a story, so indulge me.” he smiled slightly, seeing the younger man pull out his other earphone, sighing.

“You don’t wanna hear about me.” he murmured, “And anyway, if you do, just ask Mother and Father Sunshine over there.” he cast a glare towards his parents, who were idly chatting and laughing.

The man reassured, “I’d like to hear about you from you. I may be an old man who thinks he knows everything, but I love learning.”

“You’re not that old…”

The man added, “Doctor.”

 

“Doctor what?” Jethro asked.

The man smirked at that. Usually folk would ask him ‘Doctor Who’, not that, so he attempted to conceal his humour, very badly.

“J-Just the Doctor.” he stammered to stop the laughs.

Jethro gave a twitch of a smirk, “Pleased to meet you, Doctor. So, what do you wanna know?”

“Anything and everything. Love meeting new people. Gives me a sort of thrill.” he leant forward slightly, pressing his forehead against the fabric of the seat.

Jethro sighed, thinking, “Well, I’m almost eighteen. That’s something. And next month, I’m going to go see the band Raptor Rage Rangers, dunno if you’ve heard of them, in concert.”

“That’s the one with the cyborg drummer, isn’t it?” The Doctor asked, his knowledge of 27th century metal bands limited.

Jethro nodded, “It is. I like their song Thrasher, some sick riffs in there, and killer vocals -- they’re awesome! Although I do like some old Earth music. You heard of My Chemical Romance?”

“I have.” the Doctor smiled, “So you’re into the whole heavy rock sort of thing?”

The younger man huffed a laugh, “Yeah. Friends call me ‘space emo’. Very mature, aren’t they?”

“So got any plans for your future?” asked the other man.

Jethro nodded, “Definitely leaving the home. Cannot deal with the parents, man. So uncool.”

“Oh, I dunno.” the Doctor looked over at Biff and Val briefly, then back to the boy in front of him, “Family is important. I wouldn’t let it slip away.” the thought of his ‘daughter’ Jenny passed into his mind, but he pushed it back behind his wall, not wanting relive the experience of losing her.

Jethro sighed, “I only came on this trip because of shit back home.”

“Really, what happened?” the Doctor didn’t flinch at the boy’s use of foul language, but heard his parents muttering about it, both sounding disappointed.

The younger shrugged, “Boyfriend troubles. He doesn’t want to tell his dad, it’s like he’s ashamed of me.”

 

“Oh.” the Doctor paused, “So you’re…”

Jethro sassed back, “Got a problem?”

“No, of course not!” the man smiled, “I had a friend who literally flirted with anything that moved.”

Jethro exhaled, “Sorry I snapped, it’s just, back where I come from, a lot of people are dickheads about it.”

“I understand.” the Doctor then asked, “What’s his name?”

Jethro replied, “Lowell. He’s really cute. Funny, caring, and God, I love him. But sometimes, I feel like he doesn’t love me back, you know?”

“I’m sure he does.” the Doctor saw Jethro open his bag, “Do your parents know?”

Jethro froze at that, “Yeah.” he said after a while, pulling out a box of turkey salad sandwiches and resting them on his knees, “Whether they approve or not is a completely different story.”

“What do you mean?” the Doctor asked.

Jethro looked dissatisfied at his food, putting it back in it’s fabric cave before putting his feet down, “One second… You want a coffee?”

“Yeah, sure.” the Doctor got to his feet, allowing the thin boy to get to his feet, ducking away from his father’s glare as he retreated to the back, the older man in tow.

Jethro shakily made the coffee, explaining in a hushed voice, “They found out when they came home early from a date and saw me and Lowell… uh.. ahem… making out.” a blush ran over his skin, the pale pigment now going red, “My dad at first, threatened to throw me out, and my mum wouldn’t speak to me. Dad banned me from seeing him for about three months, and thanks to that, I wasn’t very happy. In fact, I was utterly heartbroken, couldn’t live life without him. He gets me, you know?”

“And what happened?” the Doctor asked, seeing Jethro’s stance suddenly go shaky.

Jethro looked down, “I shouldn’t… It’s stupid.”

 

“You can tell me, Jethro.” the Doctor took the coffee when the young boy offered him it, seeing him put his own on the top of the drinks machine.

Jethro sighed, then explained in a choked voice, “I downed an entire bottle of dad’s sleeping pills. Stupid. Not only did that make matters worse, now mum’s always worried in case I do it again, in case I stab myself or something. It hurt getting my stomach pumped of all the poison, but what was worse was seeing my mum crying into my dad’s chest, not knowing if I was going to live or die.” tears filled Jethro’s eyes as he cast his gaze towards his parents, who were now chatting with Dee Dee Blasco and Professor Winfold Hobbes, two other passengers upon the vehicle.

“Everything okay?” the hostess asked, walking over as she noticed the upset upon Jethro’s face.

Jethro reacted instantly, wiping away his tears and sniffing, “Y-Yeah. Everything’s alright.”

 

“Do you want me to tell your parents?” the woman offered.

He practically yelled at her, “No!” then calmed slightly, “No, ahem, thank you. I’m fine. I’m okay.”

“Okay sir.” she gave a slight glare, then turned, walking over to talk to Ms. Sky Silvestry, the other passenger on board.

The Doctor sighed, “I’m sorry for what you went through.” he sounded sincere, and took a sip of his coffee.

“I’m alright.” Jethro hissed, “God, everybody needs to stop worrying about me!” he took his coffee and walked back to his seat, huffing as he sat down.

\--

When Jethro arrived home a couple of hours later, his mind was reeling, thoughts washing over him of the day he had just had. Four people had died on that voyage -- Driver Joe, Mechanic Claude, Sky Silvestry and the unknown hostess.

And he almost helped his father chuck the mysterious, egotistical Doctor man out of the vehicle, which only added to his guilt. He heaved his bag and limbs up the stairs, seeing his weeping mother disappear into the kitchen, his father out by the car, both still traumatised from both the experience and the grilling from the Shadow Proclamation they had recieved, the out of space police desperate to find out about the killings.

Luckily, because he was still a minor, the police didn’t see Jethro fit to be a witness, or to give a statement. Despite that, he still felt sick to his stomach, and as he walked into his room, he breathed in the scent of mint that stuck to his walls.

He pulled his phone out of his rucksack, then cast it to the other side of the room, falling onto his bed and wrapping his covers around himself.

Minutes passed, and he laid in silence, hearing his mother and father arguing about the day’s events.

When his vone (not quite a mobile, but a communications device) rung, he was almost relieved. And then he read the caller ID. Reluctantly, he picked up the phone.

“Hey, Lowell.” he spoke into the receiver.

The soft, ever-snarky voice replied, “Alright, Jeth? How was your trip?”

“Um…” he paused, not wanting to tell anyone of the events, “It was boring. Midnight is overrated.”

Lowell laughed, sounding nervous all of a sudden, “Look, mate… I’ve got to tell you something.”

“Yeah?” he breathed.

Lowell sighed, “We can’t go on like the way we are.”

“Oh.” Jethro’s heart shattered in his chest.

Lowell began to babble, “You know I love you and everything, but it’s dad, and everything, I can’t do this anymore.”

 

“It’s okay.” no it wasn’t, “I understand.” no he didn’t.

Lowell exhaled, “I’m gonna go, Jeth, see you whenever.”

“Okay. L--” he stopped before he said ‘love you’, and mumbled, “Bye.” before hanging up, putting his vone down as everything began to bubble over.

Jethro didn’t realise that he had been crying until he heard the loud sob break from his own throat. He buried his face in his arms, trying to decide when his life fell apart. He hated himself, hated his choices, hated his life. Four people were dead, and he had nobody to talk to.

He wanted the pain to stop. He wanted to die, but knew that everything was out of reach, the knives and pills locked away, the windows barred so he couldn’t fling himself from them. Even his father’s ties were hidden. He supposed he could use one of his own belts, but knew there was a chance he would live. And that wasn’t what he wanted.

His door opened, and his father poked his head around it, looking at his devastated, weeping son with mixed emotions. Anger, guilt, pity and relief. At least his boy was alright, and safe, and alive.

“Jethro?” he asked, “You okay?”

Of course I’m not, you overgrown fool! his mind roared, but he kept his mouth shut.

“I w-will be.” he brushed the tears off his own pale cheeks, “Lowell called. He’s called it off.”

Biff raised his voice, “Brilliant! Now I’ve got to deal with my basket case of a son being a danger to himself, again!”

“Dad…” Jethro moaned, hurt by that comment, “I was only saying…--”

 

Biff interjected, “Four people are dead, Jethro! I know your little childish mind might not be able to get around that, but for once, in respect of those people, can you not make things about your relationship with that --” the next word that left Biff was a homophobic slur that rhymed with ‘maggot’.

“I love him, dad!” Jethro gasped, “And if you use that word about him, then-- then I’m one too.”

Biff snapped, “Well maybe you are.” then turned away, slamming the door behind him, leaving a crying Jethro.

His dad hated him, he almost killed someone, four people had already died, and his heart was broken. Jethro couldn’t fight it anymore.

He shakily rose to his feet, walking to his wardrobe before opening it, his fingers gingerly tracing the wood. He pulled out a black belt, then walked back to his bed, clambering upon it and tying the belt around his ceiling fan, pushing his head through the hole as he prepared to jump.

All of a sudden, a loud whooshing sound caught Jethro Cane’s attention and he looked up, seeing paper and posters fly around the room as a large blue box apparated. He gasped, not quite believing what he saw, and loosing balance suddenly, falling off his bed as the belt began to constrict his airways, the movement not hard enough to kill him swiftly. He struggled and twisted, scrabbling frantically at the belt, seeing the door of the box open, his vision blurring and flickering.

He saw a shape step out of it, rushing towards him, catching his legs and pulling him out of his makeshift noose as his consciousness faded.

“Stay with me, Jethro.” was all he heard before everything went dark.

\--

When the teenager awoke, he was in a strange, gold plated room, his head pillowed against a coffee coloured trench coat, the comforting whooshing sound returning to him. His throat ached, and he rubbed his irritated eyes, sitting up with a groan.

“Jethro!” an enthusiastic voice called, a set of converse-clad feet rushing over, “You’re awake!”

The boy nodded, “What happened?”

“You were about to hang yourself.” the voice replied, and Jethro looked up to see the Doctor, who was now frowning.

Jethro rubbed his throat, “Oh, yeah… Lowell broke up with me.”

“That’s awful.” the Doctor murmured, “It’s been hours for you, practically a year for me since we first made the aquaintance of each other. But your emotion was so strong that my psychic paper got it.”

 

Jethro groaned, “In Earthy English please? God, you really aren’t human, are you? Where am I?”

“On board my ship. The beautiful TARDIS.” the Doctor helped him up, “I’m here to give you a reason to live.”

 

Jethro sighed, “Good luck, mate.”

“Look outside.” the Doctor commanded, “You won’t fall out, just do it.”

The boy rolled his blue eyes, then walked over, opening the door. In front of him was a sky of gases, beautiful blues, blacks and reds drawing together to form shapes. It was awe-inspiring.

“Oh, my God…” Jethro mumbled, “It’s beautiful. What is it?”

The Doctor came up behind him, “It’s your universe. Your race are so tiny, yet so amazing, so clever. And just think, you get to be a part of that. You’re pretty important, I’d say.”

“Yeah, right.” Jethro sighed, “You’re just saying that so I don’t off myself.”

The Doctor shook his head, “I’m being honest, Jethro. I believe in you. You deserve better than a man who doesn’t love you enough to tell his dad to stick it, than nasty parents. So you’ve got to live and go find better. Because if you die, what is that but giving up? Stay strong, for me.”

“Stay strong?” he scoffed, “You sound like a therapist.”

The Doctor grinned, “I am a doctor. And there it is. Your humour, your sass, your essense. You’re unique, Jethro Cane. The world needs more of you, more of the ones who constantly live with labels and still show their personality proudly. You need to wear your heart upon your sleeve with this one. You’re alive, Jethro, you should be glad.”

“I-I…” Jethro’s eyes welled with tears, “My dad hates me.”

The Doctor shrugged, “My dad sold me off to a Time Lord Academy age eight. I was terrified.”

 

“I--” a barking sob escaped the teen, and the Doctor wrapped his arms around him, hushing him.

He murmured comfortingly, “I know.”

 

And as the universe flared behind them, Jethro Cane finally spilled all of the emotion crushing his chest.


End file.
